Hey guys what is up welcome back to my blog I’m so thankful that you guys took the time out of your day to read my blog post. Hope you all are safe from the COVID-19 and having a great day. I have so so many things to say about this anime. First off SPOILERS. not really major ones but still SPOILERS.
Aoi Bungaku is a beautiful anime. This series is comprised of adaptations of 6 modern classics in Japanese literature which are Osamu Dazai’s No Longer Human (Ningen Shikkaku), Run, Melos! (Hashire, Melos!), Natsume Soseki’s Kokoro, Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s Hell Screen (Jigoku Hen) , The Spider’s Thread (Kumo no Ito), and Ango Sakaguchi’s In the Forest, Under Cherries in Full Bloom (Sakura no Mori no Mankai no Shita). This review is going to different as I’m not going to describe the story of each rather I’m going to talk about Run, Melos and some of the other values I got from the series.
First off the series is awesome in animation like seriously, every character, every emotion, every musical note, every character’s voice actor. It was all perfect. And the original stories themselves though not fully adapted are shown as best as they can be in these 20 min episode arcs. I’ll say that I have gotten the inspiration to pick up Dazai’s No Longer Human after watching the story. Every story is gripping, thrilling, dealing with real life issues and just mind blowing.
Run, Melos is about a playwright who reads stories and converts them into plays. He is asked go adapt, Run, Melos a Greek story about a man who fought against a king, lost and asked for three days to go back to his home to watch his sister’s marriage and then come back, in the meantime he offers his friend as a substitute to the king. The king is confident that Melos will not come back and says that he will show the people that qualities like honesty are all but useless in the world. Out protagonist is similar to Melos. He is running, from a hometown and a past, he and his friend had decided to come to Tokyo together. He would write and his friend would perform but in the end he was betrayed by his friend Joshima who didn’t join him. He is lonely in Tokyo and keeps writing thinking of his friend. Soon enough he begins to see parallels between his story and that of Melos’ and begins hallucinating and having conversations with his friend who he blames for his sadness. He soon recieves a note that his friend is dying and rushes back to his hometown to watch his friend’s final moments. In the end he concludes with the line, “Is it more painful to wait or to make someone wait?”
This story is so compelling and beautiful. Our protagonist is like Melos running away to fulfill his dream of writing. He believes that he is the one doing the waiting, waiting for his friend and so when he is writing he calls Melos a Traitor because he believes that Melos is not really regretful that he is unable to return. In the end he discovers that his friend had conditions of his own that couldn’t let him leave but he made the protagonist leave their city so he can fulfill his dreams like Melos could watch his sister’s marriage. He returns like Melos watching his friend pass away. The end to the story which once seems so full of despair is actually very hopeful and good teaching us to look past the present and connect the dots to see the bigger picture.
Apart from Run, Melos Dazai’s other work No Longer Human is my favourite. It teaches us about the feeling of alienation and the depths of despair to which a person can sink to. The other stories all have similar themes, lust and the never ending desire of humans. Stereotypes and the want to fit in. The difference in perspectives and how they lead to different stories altogether when seen seperately but form a complete picture when viewed together.
All these values and themes that can be gotten from the show along with the perfect animation really capture the true essence of the literary masterpieces of Japan that are being shown and I know that I’m definetly going to read some. Being a 12 episode series, Aoi Bungaku is a must watch not as a mindless binge but as a carefully examined and thought over show. Watch one arc and thing about it and then watc the next arc the next day, that’s how I recommend Aoi Bungaku to everyone.
So that is it for this post guys hope you got some value from this. Thank you guys for reading to the end hit me up on Instagram and Twitter with your thoughts and if you have any ideas on what I should write about. Stay safe from the COVID-19. Thank you again and I’ll see you all next week.
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